A creek runs through it

The first Ottawa County park within the city of Holland, at the northeast corner of the city, has been informally dubbed the Macatawa Greenspace.

Annette Manwell

At the sound of people, a small flock of ducks abruptly took flight from the Noordeloos Creek at Ottawa County’s new park in the city of Holland.

Next fall, from a bridge over the creek, people could watch the salmon run, said Curt TerHaar, a park planner for the Ottawa County Parks and Recreation Department.

The first county park within the city of Holland, at the northeast corner of the city, has been informally dubbed the Macatawa Greenspace, TerHaar said. Whether that name will become the formal name of the park has not been decided.

Walking the grounds, it's not evident the space was once the Holland Country Club, closed now for several years.

Ottawa County purchased most of the 120 acres that once made up the golf course, leaving to another developer the old club house, parking lot and the 16 surrounding acres. That property remains untouched.

Many improvements were made to the greenspace this year. Thirty acres were restored as wetlands, TerHaar said. The few trees that needed to be removed were left in the low areas for animals to use. They may look like fallen trees just left there, but they serve the purpose of a natural habitat, he said.

The wetland restoration cost $750,000, TerHaar said. A Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant funded most of that project. The county used $100,000 of park millage money to complete the work.

“Our main goal of that is water quality improvement,” TerHaar said.

The banks along the stream were rebuilt to prevent erosion, he said. The banks are angled now instead of straight up and down. A cross bane — a semicircular rock formation in the stream — was built near a bridge to send the water into the middle of the stream and prevent erosion under the bridge.

Several native species plants, such as willows and dogwood, were planted on the banks.

“When everything starts growing it’s going to be real neat,” TerHaar said. “There are quite a few species of plants.”

Once completed in the spring, trails will include paved walkways, grass trails and a total of seven new boardwalks over wetlands.

One existing bridge over Noordeloos Creek was moved and raised to allow for better flow of the creek. Two other low bridges were removed, TerHaar said.

The earth removed from the lowlands was used to build up other areas of the property into berms. The hope is that only the low lands will flood, TerHaar said. The design of the land will hopefully control that, allowing some areas to retain more water than others, he said.

At one wetland area, expected to always hold water, a low dock will be built by the Outdoor Discovery Center Macatawa Greenway, TerHaar said. Its purpose to get people close to the wetland to observe it and the species that live there.

Another 17 acres of the property was also turned into wetlands by Request Foods. It was required to do a wetland mitigation — developing a wetland in another area — when it expanded into a wetland on its property, TerHaar said. The county worked with the company to accomplish the required mitigation at the greenspace.

Still a golf course

Along with developing the wetlands and bringing the former golf course back to a more natural setting, the parks department also wanted to make sure the land was available for recreational use.

A total of 55 acres were renovated by the county; 25 specifically for recreational use, 30 for wetlands.

That included building a driveway and parking lot off of Paw Paw Drive. Rustic toilets were put in and the expansive trail system was developed.

The land will still be open for golf though. An 18-hole disc golf course was developed mostly on the higher grounds, TerHaar said, to intertwine with the wetlands.

A visitor to the unfinished park now will see nondescript concrete pads placed randomly throughout the park. Those pads, hopefully before next summer, will hold the chain link baskets used for the sport.

Other areas remain untouched, TerHaar said, including some woods along Paw Paw Drive.

Future plans

When the parks department approached city of Holland officials with park plans, Mayor Kurt Dykstra voiced concern about the rustic toilets, saying modern bathrooms would be preferred.

Modern bathrooms cost money though, TerHaar said, and $350,000 of the park millage money has been used already to develop the park. That doesn’t mean the idea is off the table. The parks department would like to further develop the park, but has no time table for when.

If further development does happen, it could include more parking, modern bathrooms and a playground, TerHaar said.

— Follow this reporter on Facebook and on Twitter, @SentinelNetty.

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